Vivian Davis Figures, Herman Thomas run for Senate in economically diverse district

View full size(Press-Register photos)State Sen. Vivian Davis Figures (left) and ex-Judge Herman Thomas are running for the Senate District 33 seat in Mobile. MOBILE, Ala. -- It includes the mansions of the Oakleigh Garden Historic District and the trash-strewn vacant lots of Alabama Village. It covers the skyscrapers of downtown Mobile and the watermelon farms on Bear Fork Road. It stretches from the USS Alabama to the University of South Alabama.

Senate District 33 is one of the most economically diverse sections of south Alabama, and it's been represented in Montgomery by a single family for the past 31 years.

Now, the district will likely be in the state spotlight for the next few months, after Wednesday's announcement by Herman Thomas that he will run against Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, D-Mobile, for the seat.

Thomas, a former Mobile County Circuit Court judge who resigned in 2007 amid allegations that he paddled inmates in exchange for leniency, was recently acquitted on sex abuse charges.

Figures testified for the prosecution at his October trial. Her son is one of the men prosecutors accused Thomas of victimizing.

View full sizeThomas' candidacy is already stirring controversy in District 33.

Adam Bourne, a Chickasaw City Council member and staunch Republican, e-mailed local representatives to the Alabama Democratic Executive Committee urging them to bar Thomas from appearing on the ballot for the party's primary June 1.

The Senate district encompasses Chickasaw, Prichard and a large swath of Mobile.

Joe Turnham, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said he couldn't comment on Thomas specifically because the former judge has not yet qualified to run.

The party can bar people from primary ballots over questions about residency, party loyalty or qualifications, Turnham said, but officials "tend to err on the side of letting voters decide."

Black residents comprise about 71 percent of the district. In 1978, District 33 voters made Michael Figures the first black person from Mobile elected to the state Senate.

Michael Figures was one of the most powerful and successful politicians in Mobile's history. He filed the lawsuit that forced the city of Mobile to change to its present form of government from a system that excluded black representatives for 180 years.

In 1995, he became the first black person to be named Senate president pro tempore.

Michael Figures held his Senate seat for 18 years, until he died in 1996 after suffering a brain aneurysm. His wife, Vivian, shocked many political experts by beating state Rep. James Buskey, D-Mobile, in a special election to replace her husband. She has occupied the post ever since.

The key to the coming race will be the black voters in the district, said Jonathan Gray, a Republican political strategist with Strategy Public Relations in Mobile.

There are high-income areas in the district that can pour a lot of money into campaigns, he said, but the influential voices will be pastors, community organizers and political groups, such as the Alabama New South Coalition and the Alabama Democratic Coalition.

"You can't win a race in the black community on television ads," Gray said. "This will be a battle fought in the parking lots of churches in north Mobile County, and 75 percent of the county will never hear about it."